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Book Review: To Take Her Pride by Anne Brear

Amazon summary
1898 Yorkshire – Aurora Pettigrew has it all, a loving family, a nice home, a comfortable life. She’s waiting for the right man to offer her marriage, and the man for her is Reid Sinclair, heir to the Sinclair fortune and the love of her life. But, Reid’s mother, Julia, is against the match and her ruthlessness unearths a family secret that will tear Aurora’s world apart. Unwilling to bring shame on her family and needing answers to the allegations brought to light by Reid’s mother, Aurora begins a long journey away from home. She leaves behind all that is familiar and safe to enter a world of mean streets and poor working class. Living in the tenements of York, surrounded by people of a class she’d never mixed with before, Aurora struggles to come to terms with the way her life has changed. By chance, she reconnects with a man from her past and before he leaves with the army to war in South Africa, he offers her security through marriage. Aurora knows she should be happy, but the memory of her love for Reid threatens her future. When tragedy strikes, can Aurora find the strength to accept her life and forget the past?

My review
Aurora is sure that she and Reid will be married soon, but life has other plans. And by life, I mean Julia, Reid’s evil mother. His father’s illness and Reid’s own misguided sense of duty pull them further apart, but if not for Julia’s interference, all other factors would have been insignificant.

Instead, Aurora ends up far from home and everything familiar, struggling just to survive. Yet she finds unexpected allies in her new life. When life takes yet another tragic turn, the story could easily have gotten ridiculously depressing. Instead, it leads to a happy resolution. (It’s a romance, so I’m not giving away anything there.) I got a little irritated at Reid’s indecision and desire to please everyone else, but I did think it was sweet that he didn’t give up on Aurora or blame her for anything that happened. Had he turned into a self-righteous jerk, it really would have ruined the book for me. One villain is enough for any book.

About the book
Title:To Take Her Pride
Author: Anne Brear
Publisher: Knox Publishing
Release date: March 8, 2012
Pages: 450
Where I got the book: Free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review